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Civil Partnerships – What now for the churches?
It has just been announced that a man and a woman have won their fight to enable them to register a Civil Partnership. At first sight, it will seem only just and right to most people. If same-sex couples can enter either a marriage or a civil partnership then why shouldn’t an opposite-sex couple? Put…
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Marriage Equality for Anglicans in Brazil
I have just issued the following statement: “I am delighted to hear that the Anglican Church in Brazil has just changed its marriage canon to allow same-sex couples to get married. As we have rejoiced in St Mary’s Cathedral Glasgow in recent months with couples who have waited years to be married in church, so…
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Eugene Onegin – Scottish Opera – Review – ****
Scottish opera reach the end of their rather thin main stage season with a well sung Eugene Onegin which brings with it a lot of surprises. The action begins, not with the overture but with silence. An older woman – Tatyana herself in old age, we are to discover, stumbles into the wreck of an…
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Should the churches use more data or less data?
The trouble with data is not what you can do with it – it is what else you can do with it. There are so many interesting things that one might do with data these days which were simply not possible a few years ago. The question is, how many of them should we attempt…
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Should there be missile strikes on Syria?
It has taken me a little while to work out whether or not missile strikes against Syria are justified by the UK at the moment. It seems to me that there are quite a lot of people who don’t seem to need to take their time and know instinctively that military action either should or…
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Easter Sermon
A number of years ago, I was put in charge of the Information and Communications Board of the Scottish Episcopal Church. This meant that I was in charge of trying to formulate the church’s internal news and helping to work out our message to the outside world. I think it was fair to say that…
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Good Friday Preaching – The Servant Girl
The truth is, I only really noticed her on Sunday. I’ve never payed her the blindest bit of attention before. I guess no-one ever did. The servant girl who answered Peter back. She’s a woman in John’s gospel but a servant girl in the version that Matthew and Cedric were watching on Sunday. There’s…
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Review – Ariadne auf Naxos – Scottish Opera – ***
Scottish Opera’s Ariadne auf Naxos is an odd combination of bawdy romp and serious opera – as the composer intended. Strauss could not have hoped for better singers than Scottish Opera have assembled for this co-production with Opera Holland Park. However, seriously flawed orchestral playing marred an otherwise interesting production. Ariadne auf Naxos is a…
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Why Billy Graham’s legacy is complex
News appeared this afternoon that Billy Graham had died at the age of 99. The significance of this moment is clear – he was someone who lived an extraordinary long life, met the great and the good of all the world, changed the lives of countless thousands who were not the great and the good…
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Visit of the Primus, the Most Rev Mark Strange
It was great to be with the Primus, the Most Rev Mark Strange this morning in St Mary’s in which he talked about authority and what he’s been discovering since being elected as Primus. Here’s his sermon: Here’s the forum conversation we had after the service in which we talked about he Anglican Communion, the…